8:58am Saturday 13th June 2009
A COUPLE of miles down the narrow, winding road that runs away from Cropton Forest, we realise just how far we have been from the stresses and strains of modern life.
Suddenly mobile phones burst back into life, listing the calls and text messages we have missed during our away-from-it-all weekend.
Forest Holidays warn you in advance that you won’t get a signal while you are at Keldy Cabins and they were right.
They also tell you that your stay will be in “the perfect setting for the most chilled-out holiday you’ll ever have” and, having spent three nights at their 59-cabin site on the edge of the North York Moors, three generations of our family can atest to that — although I’m not sure to what extent grand-daughters Chloe, aged 13, and three-year-old Jena actually appreciated the concept of chilling.
Nevertheless, the television was hardly ever switched on and the DVD player and Wii games console — added luxuries in the top-of-the-range Golden Oak cabin — didn’t get a look-in over the entire weekend.
What did score highly with the kids were the treasure hunt, forest walks and miles of bike trails that feature daily on the activities programme and the family fun day and hog roast laid on as a Bank Holiday attraction.
So it goes without saying that with the young ones suitably occupied, mum and dad and nan and grandad were in the perfect mood to deal with their own personal chill factors.
And that is not difficult when you are nestled in remote woodland in a spacious, comfortable and welcoming cabin that boasts all mod cons — including your own family-sized hot-tub — and revelling in that back-to-nature lifestyle we all need more of.
Wake up to a dawn watch, take a hike or a bike ride round the various nature trails, get competitive on a laser combat session deep in the dark woods or pick up tips on survival and orienteering from one of the resident rangers and you can’t help but enjoy the feelgood factor.
General manager Stuart Tilt and his friendly backroom team have struck an impressive balance of assistance without imposition that you imagine is replicated at the five other Forest Holiday locations around England and Scotland.
It might stretch the imagination but, while we were there, the site of the old Keldy Castle — home to the Reckitt family that brought us such familiar household names as Windolene, Harpic and Brasso — was the setting for an African drumming workshop that provided an entertaining and noisy distraction for young and old alike.
With the recession biting hard, Forest Holidays are not alone in aiming to cash in by offering more affordable, Britain-based holidays for people attracted to the great outdoors but don’t wish to forego the comforts of home.
But, based on our experience at Keldy Cabins, where we prepared and cooked all our meals in the well-equipped modern kitchen, they have a competitive product in any financial climate — credit crunch or no credit crunch.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/trade_directory/